-Caveat Lector-   <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">
</A> -Cui Bono?-

from:
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/
Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin
Grabbe</A>
-----

Ship of Fools


Republicans Self-Destruct, Ensure Gore Victory


Religious Right turns out to punish McCain & guarantee Gore will be elected.

AFTER a bitter and dirty Republican primary campaign, George W Bush woke up
in his governor's mansion in Texas yesterday morning safe in the knowledge
that his political machine had destroyed Senator John McCain and cleared the
way for an assault on the White House.

On "Super Tuesday", the decisive date of the United States primary election
calendar, the Texas governor had swept to coast-to-coast wins in nine states,
leaving a dejected Mr McCain heading home to Arizona where he is expected to
pull out of the White House race as early as today.

But, in achieving his blitzkreig victory, Mr Bush may well have destroyed his
own chances of eventual triumph. Mr McCain's successful appeal to the
political centre had pushed his opponent to the Right and prompted him to
engage in underhand - and possibly illegal - negative advertising that could
return to haunt him.

More fundamentally, Mr McCain's Vietnam war record, free-wheeling open style
and emphasis on "character" left Mr Bush looking like something of an empty
vessel, a cosseted, privileged Mummy's boy whose idea of hardship was to be
deprived of a good night's sleep in his own bed. Mr Bush's victory speech in
Austin showed that he recognises he needs to win over part of the "McCain
majority", independent and "soft" Democrats, if he is to defeat
Vice-President Al Gore.

In particular, he knows he has to banish memories of his visit to the
anti-Catholic Bob Jones University, which banned inter-racial relationships.
Having already given speeches with Catholic priests standing behind him and
placards reading "Catholics for Bush" being waved, in Austin the
none-too-subtle backdrop was Phyllis Hunter, a black teacher who was chosen
to introduce him to the crowd.

Although a fortnight earlier he had accused Democrats who voted for Mr McCain
as having "hijacked" the Republican Party, Mr Bush was changing tack. "We are
a party of principle," he said. "We must also be a party of inclusion, a
party with a generous heart and an open door."
He also offered an olive branch to Mr McCain, although the former prisoner of
war's aides said this was the political equivalent of offering to shake a man'
s hand after kneeing him in the groin. They said that Mr Bush's campaign had
used surrogates to attack Mr McCain and distort his record at every
opportunity.

Pat Robertson, the Christian evangelical denounced as "evil" by Mr McCain,
accused the senator of being pro-abortion. A new pressure group in South
Carolina claimed that Mr McCain wanted to haul down the Confederate flag from
the state capitol.

This week, in New York, Ohio and California, a previously unheard-of
organisation called Republicans for Clean Air suddenly bought $2.5 million of
television time. It was used to run an advertisement calling McCain a
polluter and Bush an environmentalist.The mystery authors were then revealed
as Sam and Charles Wyly, billionaire Texan supporters of Mr Bush.

The co-ordination of advertising by a third party is a federal offence and Mr
Bush, naturally, denied any prior knowledge that the advertisements were
going to be screened. But he also refused to call for them to be taken off
air. Mr Bush himself ran an advertisement stating that Mr McCain, whose
sister is a breast cancer sufferer, opposed research into the disease.
Mr McCain also had to contend with whispering campaigns about his wife
Cindy's drug addiction, his affairs during his first marriage and false
allegations that their Bangladeshi daughter was adopted illegally. The former
US Navy jet pilot's mistake was to lose his infamous temper over these
tactics. In mounting counter-attacks on Mr Bush, his own message was lost and
the "Super Tuesday" results showed that even moderate Republicans had
rejected him.

Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster, said: "The image of John McCain we saw in
the last two weeks was an angry man bitterly complaining about the tactics of
his opponent, rather than the hopeful, optimistic man calling for reform." At
what had been billed as a "victory rally" in Hollywood on Tuesday night, Mr
McCain talked of "our crusade" continuing, but aides said the campaign was
all but at an end.

Mr McCain appeared to have ruled out the possibility of standing as a
third-party candidate. Catherine Courtney, a California supporter, said:
"Bush will never beat Gore and McCain absolutely could but I don't think
he'll do it. He won't go outside the Republican Party."

Three weeks ago, Cindy McCain told The Daily Telegraph that when the campaign
was over she would give her husband a model of the "Straight Talk Express"
battle bus that had come to symbolise his presidential bid. When the gift was
presented in their Beverly Hills Hotel suite on Tuesday night, Mr McCain
remarked that she could also have opted for "an unguided missile or a high
wire" to sum up the campaign. Like more than one of the aircraft he flew, the
campaign had ditched into the sea.

Back in Texas, Mr Bush, a man not given to introspection, would have done
well to ponder that it might turn out that the Arizona senator is not the
only political casualty.
The London Telegraph, March 9, 2000


Currency Market


Bank of Japan Attacks Yen


We want the yen to be weak, just like the euro is.

In the first confirmed intervention by Japanese monetary authorities since
the start of the year, the Bank of Japan pushed the yen lower during Tokyo
trading hours on Wednesday, boosting the US dollar and the euro by more than
one yen in a matter of minutes.

This was not without warning. On Monday, the Ministry of Finance conveyed
concern about the value of the yen by reminding the market that it would take
action to prevent a strengthening of the currency.

Ken Landon a currency analyst at Deutsche bank in Tokyo, said: 'the main
concern in Tokyo has been the euro/yen exchange rate. The euro's plunge to an
historic low at Y100.95 on Tuesday raised a few eyebrows in Japan. Today's
action by the authorities draws a line in the sand beyond which the yen will
not be allowed to cross over before corporate book closings at the fiscal
year-end on March 31.' The Bank of Japan intervened mid-morning in the
currency markets to weaken the yen against the dollar. The intervention
pushed the yen down from Y106.30-Y106.80 to Y107.50.

By 0815 GMT on Wednesday the yen was trading at about Y106.98-Y107.00,
compared with Y106.13-Y106.21 in New York late on Tuesday.

The move could help take the pressure off Japanese exporters by helping them
reduce their foreign exchange losses in the run-up to the fiscal year-end on
March 31. Many Japanese exporters have reported that profit margins were
being squeezed by the yen's increasing strength over the past year.

The Financial Times, March 9, 2000
-----
Aloha, He'Ping,
Om, Shalom, Salaam.
Em Hotep, Peace Be,
All My Relations.
Omnia Bona Bonis,
Adieu, Adios, Aloha.
Amen.
Roads End

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